Breathers: what they are and how to use them on your Instagram feed

instagram breathers

Hey guys! 🌼✨

By now we’re all pretty familiar with cute instagram posts with illustrations, quotes, nice generic images, or anything that is not an actual photo of ours or a commercial design. So time has come to learn what that type of post is called, and how to correctly use it to up your insta feed game. Shall we? 🙂

They’re called breathers, and I guess it’s easy to understand why. One of the goals of posts like that are to give the feed some breathing space from all the information that comes from photography.

Here’s how I used quotes as breathers on my old feed, combining them with other primarily white images that I published on every other post.


If you haven’t checked my series of 5 posts about creating a pretty and organized Instagram feed, here it is! Go! Go! Go!! 😜💞

Why should I use breathers on my insta feed?

Because these areas with less information, as I mentioned above, help to define spaces, organize the design logics and pattern, and bring a general lightness.

Even in the most polluted feeds, in one way or another, the breather has its function. That’s because a breath photo is not necessarily a minimalist image with a white background. The breather just needs to bring the feeling of simplicity, without excess information, preferably something objective and clear. It also helps the feed breathers to follow some kind of pattern. Example:

On this feed I used quotes as breathers. Their background is not white, but they follow the color pattern of the design, besides having harmony and simplicity that make the feed look super light.

How to use breather posts on your feed?

The breather itself may not make any difference randomly lost in the middle of a feed. For it to have a larger effect, you should create a pattern. In this way, the distribution of the breathers around the grid of posts will help to standardize the whole layout in a way that everything seems more harmonious.

It’s crazy how, just by using the right breathers, you can make your instagram feed look so much prettier 💗💫

Beijos,

Lu

Lu Amaral

Hi, I'm Lu, a Graphic Designer & Visual Storyteller. A Brazilian girlie living in Spain. A true aesthete. 20+ years of graphic design expertise. Founder of The Aesthetic Shop. Above all, a proud mommy of two.

Find me on Instagram: @luamaraltas and on Pinterest: @thisistheaestheticshop   💕

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